And then eventually later on in the seventies, we redid the whole water circulation system with PVC. The original system was all lead, and that eventually got clogged up with debris and salt and crustacean. So that was the start of bringing the aquarium out of its doldrums. And then… Read More
When you were assistant curator, how did you start to approach the care of the animals?… Read More
I’m sorry, say again. Did the board affect and help the development of the aquarium in the beginning under Chute and as well– Well, you know, that goes back beyond. I think they were more caretakers. I saw no big ideas come out. They never went out to raise any… Read More
Thursdays were free, Saturday and Sunday were free. We raised $30,000 a year, which hardly paid the salary of the people selling the tickets and the guards taking the tickets. Read More
None of them ever, to my knowledge, ever came up with an idea about, Hey, why don’t we do something to bring the aquarium into the 20th century?… Read More
And the aquarium was suffering. Suffering badly from a case of the shorts in those days. One of the saltwater galleries, when I started there, was completely closed down. The saltwater had gotten into the steel reinforcing rods in the front of the tanks and expanded and broke all the… Read More
I think he was terrified of the board. He just didn’t want anything to rock the boat. And we would have one meeting a year. Mr. Field would host it over at the Chicago Club. And every year it was Turkey, Ala king, which you could have a drink ahead… Read More
And I remember one particular time, I think he proposed that our guards, they couldn’t guard a chicken coop, would be paid, given a raise $5 a month more than the guards at the Field Museum. I said, “How come you’re doing this?” And Chute, he kind of shook his… Read More
Did the board affected in the beginning of the development of the Shedd Aquarium, Did they help?… Read More
And then his son came after him, Frank Farwell. Read More
Well, how did Chute relate to the board?… Read More
Was it good or bad for the aquarium?… Read More
Oh yeah, but I think he got that from Frankfurt, Germany. He took their seawater formula and incorporated. But why that ever petered out, I don’t know. We never made it when I first got there. Now later on, then yes, we did put together a seawater formula, but that… Read More
Who was on the board of directors, in those starting day, and was it an active board?… Read More
Not really, Stanley Field, who was the nephew of the original Marshall Field was the president of the board. He was also president of the Field Museum and also President of Brookfield Zoo. All at the same time. And so what was good for Field Museum was good for Shedd… Read More
So it’s difficult for me to pick out any one particular thing. But as far as I am personally concerned, his strength was bringing me along and training me to do the job. Read More
You talked about research, didn’t he have something to do with working on artificial seawater or trying to develop something?… Read More
Warned people coming in and pour in chemicals in here and doing that. And so going back to when we came on field trips with Dr. Park, he says, “Now, whatever you do, when you get behind the tanks, “don’t ask any questions “about what research is going on here.”… Read More
And this will kill the Oodinium.” Well, he thought about that for a while. And he could see the handwriting on the wall that we’re gonna lose the whole system. He says, “Well, okay, go ahead.” And first of all, I had to buy a Beckman Spectrometer to measure the… Read More
And he said, “Saved the collection there.” What would you say were his strengths and his weaknesses?… Read More